A program evaluation of the Georgia justice project's employment assistance program

• Main Author: Sharif, Shaheedah
• Format: Others
• Published: DigitalCommons@Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center 2004
• Subjects: Social Work
• Online Access: http://digitalcommons.auctr.edu/dissertations/2038; http://digitalcommons.auctr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3625&context=dissertations

This evaluation examines the Georgia Justice Project's (GJP) employment program. GJP has been assisting its clients since 1986. GJP is an unlikely mix of lawyers, social workers, and a landscaping company. The Georgia Justice Project defends people accused of crimes and, win or lose, they stand by their clients while they rebuild their lives. GJP's mission is to ensure justice for the indigent criminally accused and to take a holistic approach to assisting them in establishing crime-free lives as productive citizens. GJP's goal is to have a positive impact on the lives of individual clients and their families, which in turn positively impacts the community by decreasing crime and violence. Helping clients rebuild their lives often involves helping them obtain employment. In 1993, New Horizon Landscaping Company was created to assist clients with employment needs. The services the employment program provides include job readiness, job placement, training, and GED preparation. These services help clients remove/overcome barriers (i.e., legal case, criminal record). The sample consists of sixty individuals who received assistance in 2002. The social services intake form was utilized to gather the information needed for the evaluation. The data was obtained by assessing each client's case file records. The following questions were addressed in this evaluation: (1) What were the employment needs presented by the program's clients? (2) What specific needs were met by existing services? (3) What needs were not being addressed? The data were collected by the researcher and interpreted for data analysis. The findings from this evaluation were expected to increase awareness when working with ex-offenders in the field of social work. The results of the evaluation and implications are discussed in later chapters.